Vega
by Darkfire1
Summary: Trunks and Bulma go to America to get some work done with Capsule Corp. What they find is a mysterious man and a little girl with a tail! Crossover with The Pretender. CHAPTER 3 UPLOADED!
1. Running

_Disclaimer: The Pretender belongs to TNT and it's creators. Dragonball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama, Toei Animation and FUNimation. No copyright infringement is intended and no money has changed hands. _

Author's note: I tried to write this story once before. I never got beyond the first introductory chapter, and that wouldn't have been fair to try and publish it. So, here I am, and the idea is running through my head again, so I think I'll take the hint and get it in cyberspace. R&R, please! 

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CHAPTER 1: RUNNING  
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As Jarod ran from his pursuers, he figured that this was one of his closest calls. He knew that he could easily escape them if he dropped the bundle in his arms, but he couldn't do that. The bundle was a child, his child, and there was no way he was going to let them get their hands on her again. 

Six years before, the Centre had discovered a downed space craft in the Arctic. Inside had been a stasis chamber, like a cold sleep capsule, but the humanoid woman inside had been killed in the crash. Her cells, however, were completely intact, including her ovaries. Tests on the alien woman showed that her species were very powerful. Muscle density was ten times that of humans and there were strange cells dispersed throughout her body that contained high concentrations of acids. Each one was a miniature organic battery. Everything about her screamed warrior. The Centre had been unable to resist the temptation to use her. 

Under Dr. Raines' direction, the alien warrior's DNA was mixed with Jarod's in order to combine strength and intelligence. After only three attempts, a child was concieved. But the Centre still had it's security problems, one of which was the empath Angelo. Knowing that Jarod would not want his daughter growing up in the hands of the Centre, he had told the Pretender what was going on. 

The baby had been born only three days ago. Jarod had known of her existance for a week before that. He'd worked with Sydney, Brutes and, surprisingly, Miss Parker to get himself into the Centre and kidnap the infant from them. Parker had said that she was doing it for two reasons: her mother would have wanted it that way, and there was no way that she was going to leave a child who would become that powerful in the hands of the Centre. 

She was his daughter. He had stolen her from the Centre when she was only hours old, having been born from a sarogate mother, and they had been on the run together for the entire time. But he was running out of options. If he didn't find a way to put some distance between himself and his shadows, so that he could skip the country quickly, they would catch him. 

The baby had wakened from her sleep to the pounding of her father's feet. She was used to it for the most part, and she would sometimes sleep through it, but today she woke, looked up at him and laughed. The sound made him smile. She might have been the product of Raines' insanity, but she had easily wrapped his heart around her littlest finger. Because of what her mother had been, he had named her Vega, which was a latin name that meant "Fallen Star." 

Jarod looked up and spotted a possible refuge. It was Capsule Corporation's American headquarters. He knew for a fact that the company president, Bulma Briefs, would help him if she were there. Three years ago, he had saved her from being run over by an oncoming car, and she had told him that she would help him if he ever found himself in need. That kind of asset was not one to use frivolously, but these were dire circumstances. He bolted for the door of the corporate building, ducking reflexively when he heard the report of a gun behind him. _Damn, Willy. He's too damned trigger happy!_ He made it inside without any other shots being fired, and he got behind the receptionist's desk, knowing that it would only be a matter of seconds before they followed him inside. He said to the frightened woman, "There's three men about to come in here looking for me. They're shooting at me. I need to talk to your president, but they're right behind me. I need to hide under your desk until they go. Can you misdirect them for me?" 

Gulping nervously, the woman nodded. He had just ducked down when Willy and two other Sweepers came through the (thankfully) mirrored glass doors. Willy shouted, "Which way did he go?" The receptionist pointed off to the stairwells on the north end of the building. They hared off in that direction, one taking the elevator and the other two taking the stairs. 

Once they were out of sight, Jarod thanked the receptionist and stood up. She told him, "Mrs. Briefs' office is on the top floor, and it can't be reached by those elevators. It can my the stairs, but the other elevator will be much quicker and they'll have to shoot the lock off the door. I'll call Security and have them meet you up there." She handed him a key. "You'll need to put this into the keyhole inside the elevator. That will let it go all the way up. Her office is the last one at the end of the corridor." 

He took the key and thanked her, then took off toward the southern elevators. 

* * *

Trunks and Bulma were in America trying to solidify some of Capsule's holdings in the country. Trunks was learning the financial side of the business, though he didn't much care for it. He prefered the scientific side, playing around in the laboratories and coming up with new ideas, but he knew that, in order to take over when his mother retired, he would have to know every aspect of the company. 

They were looking over some of the records when the phone rang. Bulma picked it up, not really taking her attention away from the papers in front of her. But her attention was quickly captured as the front desk receptionist told her what was going on. "Thank you, Stella. Call security immediately, have them intercept the ones on the fiftieth floor. My son will deal with the ones on the fifty-first." Then she hung up and turned to Trunks. "A man with a baby just came in and hid under Stella's desk. Three armed men followed him, and she misdirected them to the North stairs and elevators. The man is coming up on the Southern elevator. He'll get here first, but the two in the stairwell can shoot out the lock on the door." 

Worried about a possible threat to his mother, Trunks nodded, going into battle mode. The men were probably all just humans with guns, but he opened up his battle senses to check for hi kis automatically. Surprisingly he found one, not very high, but higher than normal for a human, and it was coming from the South! This was wierd, but he wasn't going to question it just yet. 

Soon, the South elevator pinged, announcing the arrival of its occupant. The man was tall, chisled features showing worry and fear. But the high power level wasn't the man's! It was the child's. As Trunks and Bulma watched in amazement, the baby girl yawned widely and wrapped her _furry brown tail_ around the man's wrist. The child was Saiyan! 

* * *

_Well, how's that for an intro? Don't forget to review! _


	2. Questions

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. _

Author's note: In this one, the Saiyans all have their tails at the moment. I'll explain in the story, but it's not going to become a problem of the fifty foot kind. 

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CHAPTER 2: QUESTIONS  
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Trunks stared at the child in amazement, all kind of questions running through his mind. Who was she? Who were her parents? Who was the man holding her? But most importantly, why were there three armed men after them? 

Bulma had questions too, like what had Jarod gotten himself into this time? "Jarod? What's going on?" 

"Have you ever heard of the Centre, Bulma?" 

Mother and son's eyes narrowed. Both had heard of the questionable activities of the New England think tank, and they knew of several incidents where they had been accused of breaking certain ethics laws, though nothing had ever been proven. "Yes." 

"I don't have much time to explain, but they made this child from my DNA and that of an alien they found in the Arctic. I can explain more later, but this is my daughter, no matter how she was created, and I need your help to protect her. Please, Bulma! Please help us." 

Just then, they all heard a shot coming from the Northern side of the building. Bulma looked at Trunks, who nodded. "Right." Then he stepped out into the hallway, crossed his arms and waited. 

Jarod looked nervously at Bulma, but she just smiled. "Don't worry, Jarod. My son is more than he seems." He raised an eyebrow at her quiet pride, but he said nothing, hoping that they knew what they were doing. 

Two men came out of the stairwell, guns out and ready. One was tall, dark-skinned with hair close cropped close to his scalp. The other was slightly shorter, fair-skinned, with short brown hair. Both wore charcoal suits with black ties and shiny black shoes. Neither had any kind of badge in evidence. The first one lowered his weapon so that it wasn't a threat to Trunks and approached him. "Sir, I'm with the FBI. I need to know if a man carrying a baby just came through here. He's wanted for kidnapping and the child is in danger." 

Trunks didn't believe the man for a minute, not because he knew fact one about Jarod, but because the man was giving off an aura of meanness that said he was enjoying his work way too much. He wanted an excuse to fire his weapon, and he might not even need that. "He's here, but for the moment he's not going anywhere. The child isn't in danger because my mother, who happens to be the president of this company, is currently holding her. If what you say is true, then you can give me your badge number and I'll call the FBI personally and we'll straighten this whole mess out. If you're lying, then you better get the hell out of my building, or I'll deliver you to the FBI myself and tell them you were impersonating an agent." 

The man seemed to be weighing his options for a moment, but then he swung around, bringing his gun to bear. Trunks didn't move, but allowed the man to shoot his weapon. He fired three times, and the Saiyan caught all three bullets in his hands. They barely stung. He strode up to the unbelieving man, stopping when he was only inches away from him, and said quietly, "I believe these are yours." He held out the bullets to the false agent, who took one look at them and turned to run the other way. The second man didn't even attempt to shoot, but followed his superior into the stairwell. 

Trunks chuckled. That had been fun, regardless of the circumstances. He went back to the office to find Jarod staring at him. "How did you do that?" 

The Saiyan just shrugged. "It's a part of what I am, what this little girl is." He allowed his own tail to unwrap from his waist and slip out from under his untucked shirt. The appendage was as shockingly purple as the hair on his head. 

Bulma said, "We're going to need to know what's going on here, Jarod. I know you don't like to tell your stories, but this time it's not just you who's in trouble." 

Jarod nodded. "Yes, of course. But it's a long story, and I don't know how long it will be before those clowns are back here with reinforcements. Obviously your son can defend you, but in these close quarters, things could get confusing very quickly, and I'd rather get Vega somewhere safe." 

"Right." Bulma picked up the phone and dialed a number that she had memorized a long time ago. "Hi, Chichi. Is Goku there where I can talk to him?" She paused for a moment in which the younger woman could be heard shouting for her husband, then she said, "Hi, Goku. I need you to come to me here at the American Headquarters." 

On the other end, the wild-haired Saiyan said, "What's wrong Bulma?" 

"Nothing for now, but that could change pretty quick. I have a friend in trouble and I need to get him out of the country as fast as possible. That means you. Do you mind?" 

"No. I'll be there in a jiffy." And he hung up the phone. 

Jarod, imagining that the man had a helicopter and worked at an airfield, he said, "How soon can he be here?" 

Suddenly, there was a man standing in the middle of the room who hadn't been there before. He was just as obviously alien as Trunks, a brown tail wrapped around his waist like a belt. He had wild black hair and black eyes and he wore an orange fighting gi with a dark blue tee-shirt underneath and blue cloth-top boots. A blue sash and two blue wrist bands completed the outfit, and Jarod guessed that those last pieces had weights in them. A martial artist. And an alien. "Well, I'll be telling you my story, but I hope you'll be telling me yours as well." 

Bulma grinned at him. She didn't know much about the man, but she knew that he was a very curious sort, always wanting to know all he could about people. Of course, now he was going to need to know those things. He had his own demi-Saiyan to raise. She chuckled. "Of course." Then she turned to Goku. "Goku, this is my friend, Jarod, and this is his daughter, Vega." 

Goku reached out to shake the man's hand, then saw that it was otherwise occupied, holding a tiny infant, who had her own tail wrapped around his wrist. She was beautiful, and obviously Saiyan, but there were only two female Saiyans on this planet, and neither of them was old enough to have given this man a child, not to mention the fact that he would have heard about it if it had happened. He looked into the man's eyes and, using a talent that he had always had for judging people's characters, he found that he liked what he saw. He was more than a little curious to know how he had come by the child, but he'd already said that he was going to tell his story, so he didn't ask the questions that came to his mind. Instead, he asked, "What do you need?" 

Bulma answered. "Could you transport all of us back to CC in Japan? We need to get these two safe. A very unsavory organization is after them, and there's no way they can trace you. I'll tell the secretary that we're leaving by the secret exit, so she knows not to expect to see me for a while." That was what she had always called it when one of the Saiyans took her out of the building. She'd had to avoid the press more than once, and she wasn't above asking for help in doing so. 

Goku nodded. "Sure. Jarod, do you have the baby's things somewhere?" 

He shook his head. "I had to drop everything and run. The Sweepers are getting too close." 

Bulma shrugged it off. "Don't worry. Once we're back home, we'll be able to grab a few things from the store, and I still have all of Bra's baby clothes packed up somewhere." She turned to make the call to her secretary, then grabbed the reports she had been working on and took Goku's hand. Trunks put one hand on his mother's shoulder and the other on Jarod's. 

Goku said, "Ready?" Then he put two fingers to his forehead, concentrating. He could reach Capsule's main headquarters in his sleep, and had once, but he had to figure mass of the people he was bringing with him. But it wasn't that hard. 

One instant, they were standing in the office; the next they were standing on Bulma's front lawn. Jarod muttered a heartfelt "Woah!" Goku chuckled. 

* * *

Parker stalked the halls of the Centre as if all around her were a mere nuisance. It was a defence mechanism she had developed long ago against the preditory males that surrounded her in a male dominated business. She never dropped that mask, save for a very select few, and under very specific circumstances. It was a hard existance, but she could handle it. 

She walked into Sydney's office, closed and locked the door, then walked up to his desk. She pointed to her ear, asking the aging man if there were bugs in the room. Both of them did regular sweeps with scanners that Brutes had worked up for them, guaranteeing, as much as was possible, their privacy. "We're clear. Did he get away?" 

"Yes. Apparently, Jarod has made friends in some very high places, Sydney. The president and the heir of Capsule Corporation helped him to escape, and no one knows where they've gone. No one knows a damned thing, Syd. For once, that's a good thing." She chuckled. "They have poor Brutes chasing his tail trying to figure out not only how they got out of the building in the first place, but where in the hell they got off to. There was no chopper, no car, and no one was seen leaving the building." 

Sydney smiled slightly. "A woman as inventive as Bulma Briefs is going to have a safe exit from her building in case of reporters, not to mention the possibility of terrorism. I'm sure that her company has made enemies over the years, if not herself personally." 

Parker nodded. "Do you think he'll ever come back?" She had known that Jarod would flee the country to get his daughter safe, but she had counted the safety of the child more important than her own personal vendetta against Jarod, which she already counted more important than her job of catching him. Besides, the Centre should never be allowed to get their hands on the kind of power that the baby was likely to have as she grew older. 

"I don't know, Miss Parker. I really don't know." Would Jarod continue to Pretend, or would he settle down and raise his daughter? It was a question he doubted even Jarod knew the answer to yet. 

* * *

_There's the second chapter. I don't know the answer to this question myself yet, so we'll just have to see how it unfolds. Please remember to review! _


	3. Answers

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. _

Author's note: Thanks to both of my reviewers for your comments. Hopefully you won't be the only ones for too long. 

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CHAPTER 3: ANSWERS  
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Jarod sat at Bulma's kitchen table, his left arm supporting Vega and his right hand holding a bottle of newborn formula. He had enjoyed this most of all of having his daughter with him, just sitting somewhere, staring into her eyes and talking to her as she ate her meal. It was such a normal thing, and God knew he had little enough normality in his life, but at the same time, it was wondrous that such a small creature would trust him so easily. There didn't seem to be any fear in her, and the blonde-headed child had easily worked her way into his heart. He knew that he would do anything to protect her. 

When they had arrived in Japan, what had been one in the after noon in New York was eleven o'clock at night, and Bulma had suggested they all get some sleep to combat the "jet lag" and leave answering all the questions for in the morning. Since his day had been spent running, Jarod had readily agreed. He had been granted the use of a small guest bedroom with a double bed, so he had aranged all the pillows to keep Vega from falling out of the bed, then curled up next to her and was fast asleep. 

But the lag still caught up to him, and he had found himself awake about two hours before dawn. Vega had woken a short time later, ready to eat, so he had gone into the kitchen to see what he could find for her. A grocery bag filled with baby supplies was on the counter, and he had gratefully mixed up the formula and sat down to feed his daughter. He noticed that, for such a young child, she had a very large appetite. 

Bulma walked into the kitchen just then, stretching and yawning. Seeing what he was doing, she smiled. "Don't expect that appetite to go away. It's just something about Saiyans that they eat enough to feed a small army, and the demis eat just as much as the purebloods." Seeing him about to ask about that, she said, "No. Wait until everyone is awake and I can get everyone in here to answer questions. I've got to figure out where Vegeta is. I'm sure this is going to interest him." 

Trunks, who had just come down stairs, said, "He's in the GR. I think he's just getting in a little light morning excercise, though, so don't worry. He'll be in for breakfast." 

Bulma snorted. "One of these days he's going to have the gravity turned up so high that the next time he blows it up it'll take the planet with it and create a little wormhole." 

Trunks chuckled. "Nah. The mechanism would be blown, so there wouldn't be a continuous distortion." 

She grinned right back at him. "Why do you think I didn't shield the damned thing?" 

Shaking his head musedly at their byplay, he wondered what they were talking about. GR? Gravity Room. Still, the rest of the conversation didn't make much sense. He hoped they would explain it to him. It seemed to him that Bulma and her son were probably just as smart as he was, though probably not as "absorbant." 

Just a couple of hours later, Bulma's living room was full of people. Goku, Gohan and Videl, Goten, Pan, Bura, Trunks, Bulma and Jarod all sat on couches and chairs. Vega slept peacefully in her father's lap. And Prince Vegeta stood behind his mate, arms crossed over his chest and tail whipping agitatedly behind him, glaring at Jarod for some unknown reason. Everyone in the room but Jarod and Bulma were Saiyan, in whole or in part. 

Jarod decided that he should tell his story first. "In Delaware, there is a think tank called the Centre. They are a very old organization, and they concern themselves with the extremes of human potential, mostly mental potential. They have their hands in every kind of biological science, from medicine and psycology to genetic engineering and the exploration of psychic phenomenon. The problem is, their ethics leave much to be desired. I am what is known as a Pretender. I can pretend to be anything, as long as it is within my physical capabilities. Doctor, lawyer, race car driver, FBI agent, Akido instructor; I've Pretended to be all those things and more. When I was four years old, I was stolen from my parents and isolated by the Centre. They trained me, experimented on me, did things to me that no one should ever do to another human being. When I was thirty, I escaped. That was ten years ago. 

"Six years ago, a Centre team was called to the Arctic. Someone had found a downed space craft buried in the ice. It was spherical in shape, kind of like a giant baseball, and inside was a humanoid woman. She wore some kind of armor, but it was cracked. They ran tests for several years on both the body and the ship. They concluded that it had been damaged in some great explosion and thrown through space. It was just pure chance that it hit here. The woman was dead long before that ship ever reached Earth, but she was in space, and the cold preserved her body perfectly. 

"Then someone, and I think I know who it was, decided to see if our two species were genetically compatible. Early tests had suggested that they would be. That person was connected to the Pretender program, and they had my genetic material on file. After only three tries, they were successful in fertilizing one of the alien's eggs with my sperm." Jarod paused, getting a handle on his emotions. When he thought about just how close Raines had come to getting his hands on his daughter, he wanted to either shake apart or go find the "good doctor" and murder him. Slowly. 

When he was able to speak again, he continued. "Despite the general lack of ethics in the Centre, there are still some good people there, allies that can sometimes help me. One of them is a powerful empath named Angelo. He sent me an e-mail with all the reports and the experimental records. There were photos of the woman and the ship, and the serogate mother's physicals. He sent it to me one week before the baby was born, so I had plenty of time to work with a couple of those allies to, once she had been born, get in and take her. But there was a small gitch in the program we used to mess up their security system, and one of the cameras wasn't shut off. They spotted me, so I've almost been at a dead run for three days. I've never been so glad to have a rest as I was last night." 

Everyone took a moment to absorb the information he had just given them. Vegeta asked the first question, surprising everyone. "Why did you name her Vega?" 

Raising an eyebrow and having expected much different questions, he said, "It's Latin. It means 'fallen star.'" 

"Hn." Vegeta turned away. Bulma looked at him like he'd grown a second head. 

Goku said, "Well, I guess it's time to tell you our part of the story. It really starts with Planet Vegeta and a tyrant named Frieza." Goku, Gohan and Bulma took turns telling Jarod the entire story, from the destruction of the Saiyan homeworld and Goku's childhood to the Saiyans, Frieza, the androids, Cell and Buu. 

Jarod was not surprised to learn that Hercule Satan had not truly been responsible for Cell's destruction, but the truth was still amazing. Then he thought about Vegeta's reaction to his own story. There was one who held things close to the vest, but because of what he was, Jarod was the very best there was at reading people. Vegeta had reacted to the name. He knew something, maybe not for sure, but something, none the less. 

He looked at his daughter's face, an idea taking seed in his mind. It wasn't his imagination. She looked much like the Saiyan Prince. He looked around the room, searching for a picture that he knew would be there. There, on the mantle. Jarod got up out of his chair walking over to the fireplace, staring intently at the purple-haired infant in the photo. He looked so much like Vega, it was startling. He looked up and turned to face Vegeta, who stood staring out the window. "I've hidden my laptop well enough that the Sweepers are unlikely to find it. The pictures of the mother and the ship are still on the hard drive." He said nothing else, letting Vegeta draw his own conclusions. 

Vegeta turned toward the human, examining his face. It was little known, but some Saiyans were naturally gifted with a small amount of empathy, enough to be an asset in battle. Vegeta had always known that Frieza lied when he told a then young Prince that his world had been destroyed by meteors. He could tell that Jarod had guessed to some extent what had run through his mind at his story. He was offering to confirm Vegeta's suspicions if he could. He nodded, then turned back to the window, staring out and seeing nothing but his own thoughts. 

Jarod faced the others again. "I need to get my laptop. It has very sensitive information on it, and not just about all of this. I don't want it falling into Centre hands. It's unlikely that the ones who were after me yesterday will find it, unlikely in the extreme, but there's one who might, just because she's so damned stubborn and she knows me too well. It'll be a couple of days before she's called in, but I still need to get it out of her way." 

Gohan stood and said, "I'll take you. We can leave Vega here since I just know my Dad is itching to play with her, and that'll keep her out of harm's way." 

Jarod nodded. "Let's go." 

* * *

_So what's the connection between this kid and Vegeta? Anyone care to guess? Points will be awarded at the end of the next chapter for correct guesses. (Maybe that will get me some reviews! ^_^) _


	4. Pieces of Answers

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. _

Author's note: I'm ready to shoot FF.net. Hopefully they will work the bugs out of their system soon. Otherwise I'll go nuts! 

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CHAPTER 4: PIECES OF ANSWERS  
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"So how did you meet Bulma?" Gohan tried to make some light conversation on the long trip to New York. He had learned his father's Instant Transmission technique, but since he didn't know where he was going and there was no one he knew there to home in on, it was useless in this instance. 

Jarod grinned. The memory was a good one. "I was running a record store on 5th in New York three years ago. I was going out for lunch, and I see this woman carrying so many packages that she can't see where she's going. I decided to help her, but as I approached her, she started walking to her car, which was parked in the street. She didn't see the drunk idiot who was swerving all over the road, but I did, so I got her out of the way before he smashed into her car." He chuckled. "She insisted on buying me lunch, and she helped me solve a murder I was working on over the next couple of days. She had access that I didn't, and it helped out a lot." 

"So is that what you usually do with your gift? Helping people?" 

He nodded. "I tend to be drawn toward people who are being used or trapped, but I'll take on any kind of injustice I find, when the law either can't or isn't doing its job. I get into a position where I'm able to learn everything about the case I can, and then I give the perpetrators a dose of their own medicine before turning everything over to the authorities and moving on. I also make sure that they have the evidence they need to convict." 

Thinking about it, Gohan remembered something he'd read once. "Onysius." 

Jarod turned sharply at the name of the bent-winged Greek god of retribution, a name he had used on occasion to describe himself. Where had Gohan heard it? 

Seeing the look on his passenger's face, Gohan said, "That's who you remind me of. Bringing justice to those with no voice, though damaged yourself." 

Half a smile crossed Jarod's face. "Something like that." 

* * *

They landed the car on the roof of the building, not wanting to get in the way of the ground cars, and then encapsulated it before they went inside. Gohan payed very close attention to his ki sense, not wanting to run into any surprises just in case the woman Jarod had spoken of was working faster than usual. The little appartment was clear, and so was the hallway outside it. 

At Gohan's okay, Jarod led the way inside his latest lair. It was full of baby things; clothes, toys, parenting books, he had it all. And on the wall, hung with over a thousand evenly spaced hooks were pacifiers of all different colors. They were aranged in a mossaic that depicted little Vega in a sleeping pose. Jarod quickly wrote a note to Parker and sealed it in an envelope, sprinkling baby powder all over it before laying it down on the desk. Then he grabbed his laptop and the things he intended to actually keep for his daughter, as well as his duffle. "Let's go." 

They exited onto the roof to the ominous sound of a helicopter. Looking into the cockpit of the swiftly aproaching craft, Jarod's suspicions were validated. Parker held her weapon out the hatch, unerringly aimed at Jarod's head. He didn't dare to move. The way they stood right now, there was no way she could miss. "Parker." 

Gohan heard the name, barely whispered by the man in front of him. "Jarod, let me out of here. She can't hurt me." 

Remembering all that he had recently learned about the Saiyan race, Jarod could only nod as he moved over, allowing Gohan to leave the stairwell of the roof access. Parker shouted over the noise of the chopper, "Hands in the air, Jarod!" 

Gohan was the one to answer her. "I'm afraid I can't let you take him, Miss Parker. We have questions, and he has pieces of the answers. I'm sure you understand." He let his tail flick into her view briefly. She saw it, and her eyes widened. 

* * *

Parker cursed under her breath. She had to figure out a way to let Jarod escape on this one without bringing the wrath of the tower down on her head. And it wasn't going to be easy. Willy was in the chopper, as well, and if she did something overt, he would only be too happy to report it. She moved closer to them, not lowering her gun. She caught the eye of the teenaged alien and whispered, "Make it look real." The boy blinked. Then he nodded slightly. Good. 

She was six feet away from them when she said, "I've got a job to do kid. He's it. Move, Jarod!" 

* * *

Gohan was very careful with his ki. He had to make this look right so that Parker wouldn't get in trouble for letting Jarod go, but he also didn't want to hurt her too badly, and he didn't want to whet the apetite of the Centre even more, so he couldn't show them much of his power. As far as he was concerned, that included flight. Luckily, he already had the capsule car in his hands. They would have to make this quick. 

Parker got just barely close enough, still far enough away that it would look like just a slight miscalculation on her part. Gohan swung his fist at a very moderate speed, knowing that, for a human, it was quite respectable. He controlled the force behind it with iron will, ensuring that his target would be bruised, but nothing more. The Centre already knew that Saiyans could catch bullets, so he got himself infront of Jarod as a shield and activated the capsule as they ran, throwing it over the side of the building. It automatically went into hover mode and moved as close to the side of the building as it could. As bullets pinged off of Gohan's arm, first Jarod and then Gohan leapt into the car, and they took off. 

The chopper was fast, but it was in no way as fast as anything Capsule had come up with, and this was one of Bulma's best models, created in association with Lamborgini. Nothing else in the air, save select military planes, could outrun it. In seconds, they were too far away to be seen. 

Jarod looked behind them, making sure that they weren't being followed, then breathed a sigh of relief. They weren't even visible. "I'm glad you didn't try to fly us out of there. The less they know about Vega the better until she can defend herself." 

Gohan nodded. "Don't worry. That won't take as long as you'd think. Trunks and Goten were both able to turn Super Saiyan by the time they were five years old. I wasn't even trained in the simplest things until I was four, so I was a bit behind, but I still managed to keep up with the adult, until I turned eleven, and then I surpassed them. As long as she is trained early, she won't have any trouble dealing with humans. She's already stronger than the average grown man. She just can't use that strength yet. I'd wait until she's walking good to even introduce her to the concept of fighting, though. That's what I did with my daughter, Pan, and at that point, it's just a cool new game." 

"Why did you teach your daughter to fight so young?" 

"The Saiyans are a warrior race. It's in our blood to fight. When I was growing up, I only got training in spurts because my Mom didn't want me growing up to be a fighter. She wanted me to be an academic. I wasn't confident enough in myself to deal with my own power when I was forced to use it, so when it came, it was very explosive. I promised myself and my wife that I would never push her faster or farther than she wanted to go, but that I wouldn't hold her back, either. It's worked so far. She was able to transform at the age of seven. But remember that she's three quarters human. Vega will probably get there faster." 

Jarod nodded, wondering just how much mental factors entered into their training. If it was not a matter of physical training, but of learning techniques, they were going to find that Vega would far outstrip them all. She would be a Pretender, just like he was, and there was no way that any of them would be able to learn faster than her. But he had no idea how much that was going to affect her ability as a fighter, though she would, of course, be a superb strategist. 

Jarod realized that he was going to have a choice to make. From Gohan's story, if he didn't get training for his daughter, she would have problems when she got older. He'd always railed against the Centre for denying him his herritage, and it wouldn't be fair for him to do the same thing to Vega. But he didn't know if he would be able to stay in one place so that she could continue that training. He still had a lot of work that had to be done. He had to find his mother. She was the last member of his family that he had yet to find and hold on to. Until he found her, he wouldn't feel comfortable destroying the Centre. They knew where all the skeletons were buried, and he couldn't risk losing all that information. He also didn't want his little girl growing up without him. For once in his life, he just didn't know what to do. 

* * *

_There's chapter 4. We'll get some full answers in the next one, but which ones? Reviews, please! _


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